There is also an excellent English-language article by Gregory Tillett, "Modern Western Magic and Theosophy" (published in Aries a few years back), which deals, in part, with Gustav Meyrink's magical work in Prague in the early 1890's.

Then, of course, there is the question of what people even mean when they talk about "occultism"...!

If they're referring only to practical occultism, i.e. the kind of stuff that includes crazy-ass rituals, ceremonial magic, sexy incantations, etc., then it should be remembered that a lot of the big names in occultism actually disapproved of that sort of thing.

Blavatsky, for one, certainly did. The same is true for Eliphas LÚvi.

And if one is looking only for non-Christian, or even directly anti-Christian stuff, then this narrows the field even further.

After all, early Martinists such as Martinez de Pasqually, who did indeed work with magical operations complete with all the sexy trappings we recognize from cheesy 70's horror movies and black metal covers etc. -- i.e. long robes, lit candles, mysterious incantations, etc. -- were in fact fervent Catholics.

So, um, yeah, it's a pretty confusing field.

Anyways, a very fascinating magical order that both a) worked practically with magic etc. and b) had a non-Christian (if not downright anti-Christian) philosophy behind it, would be the Hermetic Brotherhood Of Luxor, mentioned upthread.

By far the best book on this order would be The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism, by Joscelyn Godwin, John Patrick Deveney and Christian Chanel. Highly, highly recommended.

Then, of course, there is the question of what people even mean when they talk about "occultism"...!

This is a really good point, actually. There's a degree to which the 'occult' necessarily overlaps with (or even encompasses) a number of fields of thought/experience which have no explicit connection to anything 'magical', 'spiritual', or 'religious'.

I prefer to define the occult in the most broad way possible. Given the etymology of the word, it includes all "hidden" realms of human experience - everything that exists above/below/behind the default order of conventional ('profane'?) life. This would imply that psychoanalysis is as much of an occult science as 'ritual magick' or whatever... And given the perspectives of some early pioneers in that field, like Jung, or the private inclinations of individuals like Freud, we can see that this is quite appropriate.

In some ways, the study of the occult involves a fundamental shift of one's default perspective on life, rather than simple mastery of the details of a particular esoteric ideological system: recognize that all things, and all levels of phenomena (psychological, social, physical, cosmic, metaphysical) are woven together in a 'concealed' system of order. Nothing is 'meaningless' or arbitrary, because it is interwoven into an endless web of relationships with all other phenomena. The 'lowest', most particularized order of experience exists on the same basic continuum as the highest (as above, so below). In an existential sense, what this means is that your own life, your dreams, aspirations, fears, etc, etc, are themselves part of the fabric of reality. Even though this is sort of obvious, on one hand, it seems to me that contemporary scienfitic materialism results in many people believing either subconsciously or consciously in their own estrangement from the greater structure of reality, as though their existence is some kind of 'fluke'. Even though this belief doesn't follow rationally from scientific claims about the nature of things, many people seem to end up in this position anyway.

So... given all of that, it might be advisable not only to pursue explicitly occult/religious knowledge and literature, but to approach 'profane' and familiar territory with an occult perspective. Rediscover the fact that life is intrinsically mysterious and invites a deeper, richer form of participation than we are trained to provide.

Incidentally - on the subject of 'occult' fiction... Has anyone read Steppenwolf, by Herman Hesse? This is a fantastic novel, and has probably had more of a lasting impact on me than anything else I've ever read.

good introduction, rather than a 'complete guide'
surprised no one has stressed how one can only read so much. magical knowledge comes only from experience. whatever works for you, works

Depends on what one is seeking for, of course.

If one wishes to practice occultism -- by all means, try stuff out.

If one wishes to study the history of occultism, I'd say nothing beats a good book.

(Or, of course, one can also do both! To each his own and all that! )

As for sex magic, there's a brillant new (well, fairly new -- from last year, I think) scholarly anthology about the subject, Hidden Intercourse, covering a wide range of different occult traditions. Good stuff.

Threshold was interesting, if a bit hard to wrap your head around at times. I prefer the actual ONA manuscripts. Waiting on my copy of Fosforos now. "Catechism..." was both beautifully presented and interesting._________________

under a funeral shroom wrote:

I wish, I think Chris Barnes would be much more likely to be a guest on that Guy Fieri show.